Guide to Tracking Memberships in 2024
We look at the easiest ways to track members and memberships in 2024
What are Members?
Members are individuals who belong to a club, association, organization, or community. They are the core constituents who participate, contribute, and engage in various activities and initiatives. Members can be involved in vastly different capacities and have different focuses across the different spheres that rely on members.
Let’s walk through some examples of where you’ll find members:
Clubs and Associations
In clubs and associations, members are the heart of organization, embodying its ethos, mission, and focus. Members come together based on shared interests, hobbies, or goals, forming tight-knit communities around common or niche passions. Within these groups, members not only participate but also actively contribute to the collective experience.
Memberships in clubs and associations offer individuals a sense of belonging, camaraderie, and opportunities for personal growth. Whether it's a sports club, book club, or hobbyist association, members engage in activities, events, and discussions that enrich their lives and foster lasting connections with like-minded peers.
Professional Organizations
In the professional organizational realm, members often represent people who have a vested interest in the organization’s purpose and objectives. These may include employees, shareholders, volunteers, or supporters who align with the organization's mission and contribute to its success in various capacities.
Members within organizations function as integral components of the larger ecosystem, driving progress, innovation, and collaboration. They bring diverse skills, perspectives, and resources to the table, fueling the organization's growth and impact on society.
Gyms & Personal Training
In the space of paid professional services like gyms & personal training, members take on a unique role as clients or customers seeking specialized expertise, guidance, and support to achieve their fitness goals. These individuals invest in the service provider's knowledge, experience, and personalized attention to enhance their physical well-being and overall health.
Memberships of gyms & personal training have an implicit commitment between both the service provider and the client, offering paid services in exchange for a monthly contribution by the community.
Fraternities & Sororities
Often referred to as Greek letter organizations, fraternities and sororities offer a sense of brotherhood or sisterhood among members. In these organizations, members are typically college or university students who undergo a membership process, including recruitment or rush, to join the fraternity or sorority. Members of fraternities and sororities participate in social events, philanthropic activities, and leadership development programs while upholding the values and traditions of their respective organizations.
How do Memberships Work?
Offering memberships in associations, clubs, personal training services, or Greek life organizations grant numerous benefits for both organizers and members. Memberships provide a structured framework for engagement, fostering a sense of belonging and community among participants; Organizers can cultivate a loyal and committed base of individuals who are invested in the mission and objectives of the organization through memberships. Memberships also serve as a source of revenue for organizers, as dues or fees collected from members can contribute to operational expenses, events, and activities for members.
Overall, memberships enhance the sustainability, impact, and vibrancy of organizations by creating a mutually beneficial relationship between organizers and participants. Below we talk through how memberships often function in various different spaces:
For Clubs, Associations & Organizations
Memberships in clubs typically operate on a system where individuals pay dues upon registration and renew their membership periodically to maintain their affiliation. When joining a club, prospective members are often required to pay an initial fee or dues, which grants them access to the club's benefits and privileges. embolt.app is a popular solution that provides digital registration hubs for clubs and is free to sign up with no monthly cost
These dues may vary depending on the club's structure, activities, and resources provided to members. Upon registration, members may receive a membership card or other forms of identification to signify their official affiliation with the club.
Renewing membership is a standard practice in clubs, ensuring that members maintain their active status and continued access to club amenities and activities. Renewal processes typically occur on an annual basis, although the frequency may vary depending on the club's policies. With platforms like embolt.app you can configure a membership duration for each registration and ensure your members renew on time.
Members are usually notified in advance of their membership expiration date and provided with instructions on how to renew their membership. Renewal often involves paying a renewal fee and re-registering for the club with your most up to date information.
For Gyms & Personal Training
Memberships for personal training services typically involve a structured arrangement where clients pay dues upon registration and may need to renew their membership periodically. When clients sign up for personal training services, they often pay an initial registration fee or dues, which grants them access to the services provided by the personal trainer. The initial registration often also includes detailed information about the client that the trainer can use to curate a training program for the client.
The process of renewing a membership in personal training services is essential the same as initiation but for recurring clients who wish to maintain their progress and continue working with their personal trainer. Renewal processes typically occur at the end of the initial membership term, but can often happen earlier if the trainer runs certain specials. embolt.app supports a rolling membership calculation to allow clients to renew earlier and ensure the next membership doesn’t start until the first expires.
For Fraternities & Sororities
Greek organizations often have membership structures that involve paying rush fees upon registration and renewing memberships on a yearly basis. When students express interest in joining a fraternity or sorority, they typically go through a recruitment process, also known as rush. During rush, prospective members may be required to pay a rush fee, which covers the costs associated with recruitment events, materials, and activities. This fee grants them access to the recruitment process, where they have the opportunity to interact with current members, learn about the organization's values and traditions, and ultimately decide if they want to join.
Once accepted into a fraternity or sorority, members are typically required to renew their membership on a yearly basis. Renewal processes often coincide with the start of the academic year or the organization's designated renewal period. Members may be required to pay yearly dues, which contribute to the operational expenses of the fraternity or sorority, including social events, community service projects, and administrative costs. embolt.app allows fraternities & sororities to keep track of their active memberships and renew expired members to continue growing their organization;
How to Manage Memberships Effectively
In 2024, the best way to effectively management your members & memberships is through digital platforms like embolt.app. These services can be called a variety of things, like:
Member Database
Member Management Software
Club Management Software
Generally these platforms offer ways to setup memberships, offer secure registrations and manager members with a behind-the-scenes administration panel. embolt.app let’s you:
Build a customize-able registration hub for your members and use our admin panel to manage everything from members to mailing lists.
Accept secure transactions over Credit/Debit Card, Venmo, and PayPal via our exclusive PayPal partnership. No bank account required.
Get a birds-eye view of your members with our advanced analytics. Identify expiring or past due members, and create custom segments like first-time and recurring.
Step One: Register for embolt.app
Registering for embolt.app doesn’t require a credit card or bank account, and there’s no monthly cost to use the platform. Pricing is dependent on your registration costs and set to help you run (or walk) at your own pace
Step Two: Create a Membership Form
Once you’ve signed up for embolt.app and created your first organization, you’ll want to create a membership that gives you the information you need from your members whether you’re a club or personal trainer:
Your membership form should generally request information that helps you make data-driven decisions in the future to better cater events & activities. Some common examples of fields to use are:
Clothing size for apparel orders
Food preferences for event catering
Weekday availability for scheduling
Age for compliance
Additionally, you’ll want to set a price and duration. The duration of your membership form should reflect how long you want a membership to last, in days. Generally 365 days is used to signify that the membership lasts one year, but you can choose whatever number of days you want.
The price should reflect how high your operational costs are, and how ambitious your goals are that require funding. Membership forms can range from as low as $5 to as high as $2000 (or even higher in select cases).
Step Three: Link your PayPal
Once you’ve created a membership form, you can link a PayPal to your embolt organization to start accepting payments & registrations from members. Linking your PayPal is as easy as following the guided onboarding experience provided by embolt’s PayPal platform partnership.
Step Four: Share your Registration Hub
After you’re all setup, you can share your registration hub around and let your members self-service their registrations to your club, organization, or services. Registrations are self-guided and walk members through filling out your membership form and paying your configured member due:
services.
Step Five: Member Members with Ease
With members registering on your registration hub, you’re ready to take advantage of your integrated data to grow your member base and make data driven decisions with embolt’s dashboard:
Conclusion
Members are a vital core of any club, association, organization and community-oriented service. Memberships provide a contract between organizers and members to exchange passions and services for the benefit of the organization. In 2024 tracking your member and memberships is easier than ever with platforms like embolt.app.
If you’re interested in transforming how you manage your members and want to experience an easy-to-use platform to make memberships a breeze, give embolt.app a try today completely free.